Roper.  I submit to your worship that these questions are hardly to the point, the prisoner having admitted that he himself does not remember anything. [There is a smile on the face of Justice.] It is a case of the blind leading the blind.

Jones. [Violently.] I’ve done no more than wot he ’as.  I’m a poor man; I’ve got no money an’ no friends—­he ’s a toff—­he can do wot I can’t.

Magistrate:  Now, now?  All this won’t help you—­you must be quiet.  You say you took this box?  Now, what made you take it?  Were you pressed for money?

Jones.  I’m always pressed for money.

Magistrate.  Was that the reason you took it?

Jones.  No.

Magistrate. [To snow.] Was anything found on him?

Snow.  Yes, your worship.  There was six pounds twelve shillin’s found on him, and this purse.

     [The red silk purse is handed to the magistrate.  Barthwick
     rises his seat, but hastily sits down again.]

Magistrate. [Staring at the purse.] Yes, yes—­let me see [There is a silence.] No, no, I ’ve nothing before me as to the purse.  How did you come by all that money?

Jones. [After a long pause, suddenly.] I declines to say.

Magistrate.  But if you had all that money, what made you take this box?

Jones.  I took it out of spite.

Magistrate. [Hissing, with protruded neck.] You took it out of spite?  Well now, that’s something!  But do you imagine you can go about the town taking things out of spite?

Jones.  If you had my life, if you’d been out of work——­

Magistrate.  Yes, yes; I know—­because you’re out of work you think it’s an excuse for everything.

Jones. [Pointing at jack.] You ask ’im wot made ’im take the——­

Roper. [Quietly.] Does your Worship require this witness in the box any longer?

Magistrate. [Ironically.] I think not; he is hardly profitable.

     [Jack leaves the witness-box, and hanging his head, resumes his
     seat.]

Jones.  You ask ’im wot made ’im take the lady’s——­

     [But the bald constable catches him by the sleeve.]

Bald constable.  SSSh!

Magistrate. [Emphatically.] Now listen to me.

I ’ve nothing to do with what he may or may not have taken.  Why did you resist the police in the execution of their duty?

Jones.  It war n’t their duty to take my wife, a respectable woman, that ’ad n’t done nothing.

Magistrate.  But I say it was.  What made you strike the officer a blow?

Jones.  Any man would a struck ’im a blow.  I’d strike ’im again, I would.

Magistrate.  You are not making your case any better by violence.  How do you suppose we could get on if everybody behaved like you?